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Ancient Greek Page · Branch 176 of 879
Book I Chapter 13 · I.13.1c.4–I.13.2.1
Ancient Greek
p. 3481c ⟨Ἀρείου Διδύμου⟩ · 4
Ποσειδωνίου. Ποσειδώνιος δὲ οὕτως· αἴτιον δ’ ἐστί τινος, δι’ ὃ ἐκεῖνο, ἢ τὸ πρῶτον ποιοῦν, ἢ τὸ ἀρχηγὸν ποιήσεως. καὶ τὸ μὲν αἴτιον ὂν καὶ σῶμα, οὗ δὲ αἴτιον οὔτε ὂν οὔτε σῶμα, ἀλλὰ συμβεβηκὸς καὶ κατηγόρημα.
1d ⟨Ἀετίου⟩
Θαλῆς καὶ οἱ ἐφεξῆς τὸ πρῶτον αἴτιον ἀκίνητον ἀπεφήναντο.
⟨Οἱ⟩ Στωικοὶ τὸ πρῶτον αἴτιον ὡρίσαντο κινητόν.
Οἱ Περιπατητικοὶ τῶν αἰτίων εἶναι τὰ μὲν αἰσθητά, τὰ δὲ νοητά.
2 Ὀκέλλου · 1
Ὄκελλος ἔφησεν εἶναι αἴτιον δι’ ὃ γίγνεταί τι. λέγει γὰρ ἐν τῷ Περὶ νόμου οὕτως·
Συνέχει γὰρ τὰ μὲν σκάνεα τῶν ζῴων ⟨ζωά⟩, ταύτας δ’ αἴτιον ψυχά· τὸν δὲ κόσμον ἁρμονία, ταύτας δ’ αἴτιος ὁ θεός· τὼς δ’ οἴκως καὶ τὰς πόλιας ὁμόνοια, ταύτας δ’ αἴτιος νόμος.
Stobaeus, Volume I: Book I Chapter 13
p. 3491c ⟨Arius Didymus⟩: Posidonius
Posidonius. Posidonius puts it this way: a cause of something is that because of which that thing occurs, or what acts first, or the originator of an action. The cause is an existent and a body, while what it is a cause of is neither an existent nor a body, but something that occurs and a predicate.396
1d ⟨Aëtius, Opinions⟩
Thales and those who followed him declared the first cause to be unmoved.
⟨The⟩ Stoics defined the first cause as subject to motion.
The Peripatetics held that some causes are sensible and others intelligible.397
2 Ocellus, On Law, part 1
Ocellus said that a cause is that because of which something comes to be. For he says in On Law:
For ⟨life⟩ holds together the bodies of living creatures, and soul is its cause; harmony holds together the world, and god is its cause; concord holds together households and cities, and law is its cause.398
Socrates
Reading Stobaeus, Volume I · Book I Chapter 13 · I.13.1c.4–I.13.2.1
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Stobaeus gathered Greek philosophy and poetry for his son Septimius. Volume I presents the dedication testimony, On Arithmetic, Book I through chapter 60, and the ancient contents of all four books. This complete bilingual edition includes an introduction and 2,117 explanatory notes.
Historical Text and Translation
The Greek follows Curt Wachsmuth’s 1884 Volume I, checked against the supplied scan. Gaps, lost-chapter headings, and uncertain attributions remain visible. Chapter 2 includes a labeled proposed reconstruction. The appendix outlines Books I–IV; the full texts of Books II–IV are outside this volume. Reader pages preserve the companion PDF’s numbering.
About Diotimos Editions
Diotimos Editions prepared this independent English translation directly from the Greek. Prose and verse retain their distinct forms, with mixed passages preserving their quoted verse. Every passage is paired with its Greek and identified by the edition’s reference number. All 2,117 notes remain linked to their passages, with continuous numbering across the introduction and text.
Rights
Stobaeus’s ancient Greek work and Wachsmuth’s 1884 printing are in the public domain. The independent English translation, introduction, and explanatory notes are © 2026 Diotimos Editions. The complete supplied edition is available as PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown. The PDF retains the fixed page locations used by the companion lexicon.